An Interesting Password Vulnerability

Everyone knows that passwords are important to security and that you need to use passwords that are difficult to guess, you should keep them secret, and you need to change them often. In addition, you need to protect your systems against password cracking programs such as rootkits that give hackers access to your sensitive information. But did you know that the simple act of typing your password also leaves you open to attack?

Two Swiss researchers, Martin Vuagnoux and Sylvain Pasini, recently found that wired computer keyboards give off electromagnetic waves that can reveal your keystrokes. They measured the amount of electromagnetic radiation when the keys of various wired keyboards were pressed and were able to recover keystrokes at a distance of up to 20 meters, including through walls.

For more information about Vuagnoux and Pasini’s tests, see their website, which also includes video of their experiments.